Republican congressional candidate Tom Tierney is standing by his joke, which two of his Democratic opponents have criticized as sexist.

The MetroWest Daily News reported on Sunday that when a reporter asked Tierney about women’s issues, he responded with a joke. “Until age 18, he said, women need good parents. Until 35, they need good looks, until age 50 they need a good personality and after that, they need cash,” the newspaper reported.

Tierney went to say he had told the joke to explain that he wants to ensure women have economic support. "I am very concerned about women’s financial security when they reach their elder years, and equal opportunities for younger women," he told the newspaper.

Tierney is one of three Republicans competing for the 5th District congressional nomination. Two of the candidates running for the Democratic nomination, State Sen. Katherine Clark and Middlesex County Sheriff Peter Koutoujian, immediately called on Tierney to apologize.

Koutoujian, in a statement, said Tierney’s comments “are inappropriate, offensive, and have absolutely no place in this campaign.”

Clark, in a statement, said Tierney’s “brand of sexist politics has no place here in Massachusetts.”

Tierney, however, told The Republican/MassLive.com that he is not apologizing. He said he was not speaking for himself, but quoting Sophie Tucker, the Hollywood actress whose career spanned the first half of the 20th century.

“When they asked me about women’s issues, I said here’s what the feminist back when I was a kid was saying,” Tierney said. “I gave them the quote. I said I buy into point four. I said women over 50 need financial security, and Tom Tierney is the candidate who is fighting harder to bring them that security than anyone else.”

Republican congressional candidate Tom Tierney Website of Tom Tierney

“Unfortunately, (the reporter) attributed the quote to me and didn’t identify I was quoting from grand old Sophie,” Tierney said.

Tierney, an actuary and Marine Corps veteran, has run 17 times since 1976 for a variety of state offices. He has never won a general election.

Tierney said he plans to spend $25,000 of his own money in this race. His major issues include protecting Social Security by maintaining cost of living adjustments and not increasing the retirement age; extending Medicare to anyone who wants to opt into it; eliminating the Bush tax cuts; and using government to create jobs for the unemployed.

This is one of the first times that any of the Democratic candidates have engaged with any of the Republicans, in a district that is overwhelmingly Democratic. Both Clark and Koutoujian have made women’s issues a central theme of their campaigns.